Concrete Distress Investigation at a Suburban Shopping Center

Location: Garland, Texas

The concrete parking lot at a Dallas, TX suburban strip mall housing a national electronics retailer and other popular chain stores was exhibiting various forms of distress in the concrete pavement including cracking, faulting, heaving, aggregate pop-outs, and relative joint displacement. In addition, CA observed that the brick facade of the concrete tilt-wall panels of the structure was delaminating and spalling at localized areas. CA was retained by the owner to perform an investigation into the cause(s) of the distress which included evaluation of the construction practices, plans, and drawings and a detailed condition survey of the both the concrete pavement and tilt-wall panels, numerous relative elevation surveys, and non-destructive testing, including the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR). Sampling and testing also included petrographic examination of the concrete pavement and stabilized base materials. CA was able to determine the cause of the distress in both the concrete pavement and tilt-wall panels and provided the owner with a cost efficient solution that could be implemented without disrupting everyday operations at the strip mall plaza.